Brown v. Education

3. Research the details about the case (answer
the five research questions: Who, What, When, Where and Why). Take notes about
what you discover. Note the sources of your information. You must list your sources at
the end of the essay in Bluebook citation format, proper
footnotes in Bluebook format throughout the essay, and properly cite the sources of each piece
of information in the essay itself.
4. After researching a case, organize the
information you have collected by making an outline. A basic structure for
organizing your information might be as follows.
A. Introduction:
1. Identify the name of the case and when it
was heard before SCOTUS.
2. Identify the parties involved in the case.
3. Briefly describe the focus of the case.
B. Describe the case itself: What was the
controversy in the case?
C. How did the case move through the courts
before reaching SCOTUS?
1. What court had original jurisdiction in the
case?
2. How had previous courts ruled in the case?
D. What did the SCOTUS rule in the case?
1. What was the argument of the majority
opinion?
2. What was the argument of the minority
opinion?
E. What was the reasoning used by the SCOTUS
to reach its decision? How did it reach its decision?
E. Conclusion: How does the Court’s ruling in
the case affect Americans today?
1. Has the Court’s ruling in the case affected
other rulings in other cases?
2. Has the Court’s ruling affected the
interpretation and enforcement of any particular laws, and how those laws are
enforced?
3. If applicable: Has the Court’s ruling in
this case affected you, or someone you know, personally?
5. Write your essay. If you organized your
information based on the suggested outline, then all you have to do is write
down what you have learned from your research, and put it into a footnoted two
to three page essay. Your first paragraph is the introduction (the information
under letter A of your outline). The second paragraph is the information under
letter B, and so on.
6. Sources: Be sure to cite your sources,
using sequentially numbered footnotes. That means any information you learned
from another source, such as a website, a magazine article, a videotaped
interview, etc., must be properly noted in your essay. Make sure you use
footnotes in proper BlueBook citation style. Footnotes appear at the bottom of
each page, not at the end of the document (those are endnotes).
7. The grading criteria is in the supporting
materials, so review it before writing your essay.

Last Completed Projects